My Manifesto

This blog/commentary is long in coming. I have often been asked, rightly or wrongly, to comment or give my opinion on all things political as if my opinion mattered. I imagine it is a common comment (or lament) for any political scientist who admits to being one in public. I am a budding political scientist, it's true, but this has little to nothing to do with politics. Perhaps it is much the same with MDs. I met a med student in Italy who studied podiatry and whenever she said this invariably someone would ask about a mole, fungus, or itch on their foot. All the same, the insights gained from social inquiry ought to be put to good use in public debate (or quietly on an obscure internet website). I was once told when beginning my graduate studies that talking to the public or writing in the news was pointless. In a way it is but I also think that it is our job as scholars to contribute to the public debate. How we do that exactly is not quite clear, I admit. But since it came from a professor I came to loath I figure I need to start somewhere and his comments only seemed to make me want to talk more. Perhaps I will gratefully acknowledge this prof in some future book that isn't even remotely academic.

At any rate, on to what this commentary is and isn't. It is an attempt to comment on major issues, particularly international ones (I am an IR scholar, after all), by putting them into some perspective. This can be theoretical in the sense that we could muse about what theory tells us about a given issue; or it could simply be a broader view that attempts to put issues into context. In either sense it is not a knee-jerk opinion (though those come too just for fun- I love a good rant like my angst for people who say 'fisherperson') or at least when it is I will try and put it into some coherent form with some reference to why it matters that I am ranting. And whenever I get back to travelling (sadly, my dissertation makes that unlikely for a year or so) then this may prove to be my travelogue as well.

What this blog isn't, however, is a 'he said, she said' list of what other blogs or people are saying. Those are fun, even useful. But this blog is being written by a mildly misanthropic, elitist, PhD student so there should be some element of that in what I right. No?

As this blog is aimed primarily at my friends and family I should point out that in case you didn't know I'm a full blooded liberal, progressive, cynical, sarcastic as hell lefty, and sometimes socialist thinker who can come across as slightly (and innocently) arrogant, which I'm not but I can see how that impression might exist. For those of you who know me in an academic sense this is not an academic blog (there are lots of those and perhaps I will link them up as I go). It is merely an attempt to use the insights from systematic inquiry for normative ends... and rantings.

In short, these are my musings; educated, misanthropic, elitist, angry, enlightened, pointless, and all the rest in all their glory. Enjoy.